Large numbers of TCU fans are preparing to head to Southern California to watch the Horned Frogs compete for their first football national championship in nearly 85 years. Georgia fans, on the other hand, seem less than enthusiastic about the idea of making the 2,000-plus-mile cross-country trip to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium to support their champion Bulldogs in their second straight title game appearance.
Texas leads the way in ticket sales for the Clash Championships, accounting for 37% of resale purchases, according to data from SeatGeek. Within the Lone Star State, TCU’s home city of Fort Worth takes 19% of sales from the state and neighboring Dallas another 18%.
The second largest group of buyers comes from the game’s host state, California, at 19%. Fans from Georgia are responsible for only about 7% of SeatGeek’s national championship ticket sales after what was essentially a home game in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta in the semifinals, where the Bulldogs topped the Ohio State Buckeyes in one thrilling point. Win.
Texas’ proximity to Los Angeles, especially compared to Georgia, may explain some of the increased ticket interest, but fans are likely planning to make the trip at the expense of the eight decades since TCU last won a national championship; He won both national titles for the Two Horned Frogs in the 1930s. The program’s Monday appearance will be the first in the lives of most of its fans, the first in this era and the first since returning to powerhouse conferences as a member of the Big 12 nearly a decade ago.
On the other hand, the Bulldogs are no strangers to the national championship. They played for the title and won – for the first time since 1980 – just this past January in a rematch of the 2018 tournament where they fell to Alabama. In last season’s championship game in Indianapolis, where quarterback Stetson Bennett led his team to victory over their SEC rival, Georgia topped the list of states that bought tickets on the SeatGeek platform, accounting for 32% of sales.
Traveling to games requires time and money, as average resale prices for tickets for the Monday Night Game jumped 17% to $1,904 once the final game was decided — no small sum for many fans, especially on a repeat basis.
Georgia isn’t the first state to reflect a muted interest in back-to-back national tournament appearances, especially for out-of-state teams. Last year, when the Crimson Tide was making its second straight championship appearance (and playing in its sixth title game in seven years), Alabama was home to just 9% of SeatGeek’s sales.
“We’ve definitely seen more demand from TCU fans than Georgia fans so far,” said Chris Layden, director of consumer strategy for SeatGeek. “It’s hard to say how much that’s due to the excitement of TCU fans rather than the exhaustion of Georgia fans, who saw their team win the title last year and now have to travel across the country for a repeat.”
While Leyden says SeatGeek hasn’t noticed much “win fatigue” in other leagues (“Patriots fans still show up to both Super Bowls in droves”), the excitement level in Texas undoubtedly outperforms that of Georgia for this big year. Game.
